1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an airgun firing mechanism. Specifically, the present invention relates to a firing mechanism for a repeat fire airgun having one magazine with a plurality of rotary bores, that can be loaded with both spherical BB (ball bearing) bullets and diabolo-shaped pellets in this single magazine, capable of repeated firing no matter what shaped bullets are loaded in the magazine.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, two different types of bullets, known as ball shaped BB bullets and shaped pellets are used in an airgun. Generally, BB bullets are used in an airgun specifically designed to be capable of firing only BB bullets, and pellets are used in an airgun specifically designed to be capable of firing only pellets.
A BB bullet-only airgun and a pellet-only airgun are known in both single shot type and repeater type using a magazine.
For example, a firing mechanism for a repeater type airgun is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,795 “Gun with pivoting barrel, rotary ammunition cylinder, and double-action firing mechanism” ‘related art 1’). The rotary ammunition cylinder 49 of related art 1 is described as using pellets inside bores 52 (column 3, lines 3–7).
However, airguns capable of using BB bullets and pellets are also known, but such airguns are capable of a repeat action with the use of a magazine for BB bullets, but for pellets a magazine is not used but rather the airguns are manually loaded single-shot airguns.
On the other hand, BB bullets and pellets are incompatible as they are made from different materials, and have different shapes and dimensions. Specifically, BB bullets are steel balls having a diameter of 4.3–4.5 mm, while pellets are lead diabolo-shaped cylinders having a maximum diameter of 4.6–4.8 mm.
Therefore, with a repeat-action airgun using a magazine, it is not possible to use both BB bullets and pellets of differing diameters together, and repeated firing is carried out using either a BB bullet-only magazine or a pellet-magazine having bores that have a diameter corresponding to the diameter of the respective bullets or pellets used. That is, the inner diameter of a single bore of a BB bullet-only magazine is 4.3–4.5 mm, while the inner diameter of a single bore of a pellet-only magazine is 4.6–4.8 mm. Accordingly, even if BB bullets are put into the bore of a pellet-only magazine, they cannot be held inside the bore and roll out because they are spherical. Conversely, it is not possible to put pellets into the bore of a BB bullet-only magazine, and if an attempt is made to do so, the pellets will simply become distorted in shape or broken because they are made of lead.